Now Ye're Talking - to the team for Ireland's first satellite, EIRSAT-1

Shpudnik · 10-10-2017 1:13am

Army_of_One wrote: »

were you ever tempted to call the satelite Spudnik 1?

Congratulations all the same , its a great achievement

That would be a great name.

EIRSAT-1 Team · 10-10-2017 9:29am

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

This sounds like a fantastic project, very best of luck with it. I've worked in the Irish space industry (yes, it exists!) and it's great to see something to catch people's imagination.

We hope that this mission will continue to support the thriving Irish Space industry!

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

ESA's technical control and review process is incredibly strict (for obvious reasons), at least for commercial work. Do they have a slimmed-down version for university projects like this, or are you currently drowning in docs?

The Fly Your Satellite! Program involves a slimmed-down version of the usual review process, however we still have a huge number of documents to provide to the FYS team and ESA experts. The core documents are included, and considering the vast majority of the team have not had experience writing these kind of documents, it is a nice (and very hectic!) learning experience which will hopefully prepare us for further reviews in the future.

EIRSAT-1 Team · 10-10-2017 10:37am

Rubecula wrote: »

In the planning stage, what consideration did you give to space junk? With so much up there a safe orbit must take a lot of maths and study?

Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. You're right that there's a lot of stuff up there, but for now, there's also a lot of empty space. And that empty space is really necessary to ensure that the probability of collision remains as low as it is.

There's basically no way to find a 'safe' orbit during the planning phase. It would be crazy to try and accurately propagate EIRSAT-1's orbit for the lifetime of the mission. And that's before we've even get to launch, so to know it now, we'd have to figure out exactly where the ISS will be in 2 or 3 years when we'll launch from it. We'd also need to know the masses and forces of all the separation springs of the other CubeSats that we're sharing a deployer with to calculate our initial launch trajectory. And that's just for EIRSAT-1, we'd have to do the same thing for everything that could potentially hit it! Essentially what I'm trying to get at is that predicting a collision so far out is not a problem that can be solved.

Since a lot of satellites like EIRSAT-1 have no means to alter their orbit to avoid a collision, it's very important to keep space as empty as it currently is. So that means we have a responsibility to other space users to make sure that we don't end up as space junk. Any mission launched into space must have a plan for how to they intend to deal with the disposal of the spacecraft after the end of the mission. The rules are that you have 25 years after the end of the mission to de-orbit the spacecraft or boost it into a parking orbit where it doesn't pose a risk to active spacecraft.

With EIRSAT-1 we're expecting a 1 year (2 years at most) lifetime before the spacecraft de-orbits due to atmospheric drag, so we're in no danger of violating the rules. But we didn't get off the hook that easily, we still had to prepare a full 'Space Debris Mitigation Report' for ESA.

Ger Roe · 10-10-2017 11:04am

This isn't a scientific question, more of a self confirmed space geek one...

I have a small collection of NASA mission patches that I have collected over the years, do you have a patch for your mission logo design and can it be purchased anywhere?

Best of luck, by the way.... I look forward to also collecting the inevitable commemorative postage stamp when it is issued.

(I'll get my coat now)

Rubecula · 10-10-2017 1:15pm

Ger Roe wrote: »

This isn't a scientific question, more of a self confirmed space geek one...

I have a small collection of NASA mission patches that I have collected over the years, do you have a patch for your mission logo design and can it be purchased anywhere?

Best of luck, by the way.... I look forward to also collecting the inevitable commemorative postage stamp when it is issued.

(I'll get my coat now)

make it a nice warm one with oxy tanks on the back

Rubecula · 10-10-2017 1:23pm

EIRSAT-1 Team wrote: »

Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. You're right that there's a lot of stuff up there, but for now, there's also a lot of empty space. And that empty space is really necessary to ensure that the probability of collision remains as low as it is.

There's basically no way to find a 'safe' orbit during the planning phase. It would be crazy to try and accurately propagate EIRSAT-1's orbit for the lifetime of the mission. And that's before we've even get to launch, so to know it now, we'd have to figure out exactly where the ISS will be in 2 or 3 years when we'll launch from it. We'd also need to know the masses and forces of all the separation springs of the other CubeSats that we're sharing a deployer with to calculate our initial launch trajectory. And that's just for EIRSAT-1, we'd have to do the same thing for everything that could potentially hit it! Essentially what I'm trying to get at is that predicting a collision so far out is not a problem that can be solved.

Since a lot of satellites like EIRSAT-1 have no means to alter their orbit to avoid a collision, it's very important to keep space as empty as it currently is. So that means we have a responsibility to other space users to make sure that we don't end up as space junk. Any mission launched into space must have a plan for how to they intend to deal with the disposal of the spacecraft after the end of the mission. The rules are that you have 25 years after the end of the mission to de-orbit the spacecraft or boost it into a parking orbit where it doesn't pose a risk to active spacecraft.

With EIRSAT-1 we're expecting a 1 year (2 years at most) lifetime before the spacecraft de-orbits due to atmospheric drag, so we're in no danger of violating the rules. But we didn't get off the hook that easily, we still had to prepare a full 'Space Debris Mitigation Report' for ESA.

I will let you off this once.

Basically you are saying lob it and hope for the best? I wish you a lot of luck with that then ..... a nut and bolt at a closing speed of (lets be conservative) 34,000 kph impacting on a low earth orbit could produce an interesting experiment. I am really excited by all this, I almost feel like a young undergraduate again.

EIRSAT-1 Team · 10-10-2017 4:37pm

Ger Roe wrote: »

This isn't a scientific question, more of a self confirmed space geek one...

I have a small collection of NASA mission patches that I have collected over the years, do you have a patch for your mission logo design and can it be purchased anywhere?

We hope to have some mission patches soon! I'm getting ready to sew it onto my denim jacket.

Ger Roe wrote: »

Best of luck, by the way.... I look forward to also collecting the inevitable commemorative postage stamp when it is issued.

(I'll get my coat now)

Thanks so much! The stamp may be a few decades away, if we still use stamps...

Edit: Send us a PM with your details and we'll make sure to pop a mission patch in the post to you as soon as we get them! Sorry it won't have an EIRSAT-1 stamp on the envelope.

DeVore · 10-10-2017 6:46pm

If you dont launch it on March 17 and call it Sat Paddy Day then I will never speak to you again

EIRSAT-1 Team · 11-10-2017 9:24am

DeVore wrote: »

If you dont launch it on March 17 and call it Sat Paddy Day then I will never speak to you again

Well it's been nice talking to you.

DeVore · 11-10-2017 1:18pm

It will at *least* be green with a comical over-sized felt top hat, perched at a jaunty angle. Right?

We're definitely going to have to do this AMA again during the build when you ladies and gents are further along, its really fascinating. I wish you the very best, this IS rocket science!

Rubecula · 12-10-2017 2:17am

DeVore wrote: »

It will at *least* be green with a comical over-sized felt top hat, perched at a jaunty angle. Right?

We're definitely going to have to do this AMA again during the build when you ladies and gents are further along, its really fascinating. I wish you the very best, this IS rocket science!

I look forward to it.

Manic Moran · 15-10-2017 8:44am

So how much of what you are doing is done from scratch because nobody has ever done it before? As opposed to doing from scratch for the purposes of the exercise and training, or how much was just taking what other folks have done and made it fit?

Manic Moran · 15-10-2017 8:44am

Doublepost.

EIRSAT-1 Team · 16-10-2017 7:16pm

Manic Moran wrote: »

So how much of what you are doing is done from scratch because nobody has ever done it before? As opposed to doing from scratch for the purposes of the exercise and training, or how much was just taking what other folks have done and made it fit?

Hi! I think we've answered something similar to this previously, but what I would add is that especially with our two experiments EMOD and GMOD, Irish technology gets the chance to be flown for the first time in space, which is super cool!

Rubecula · 16-10-2017 8:52pm

EIRSAT-1 Team wrote: »

Hi! I think we've answered something similar to this previously, but what I would add is that especially with our two experiments EMOD and GMOD, Irish technology gets the chance to be flown for the first time in space, which is super cool!

Negative 455 degrees Fahrenheit cool in fact

Ger Roe · 17-10-2022 4:07pm

Congrats to the team at UCD -

Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, has signed the contract documents with the European Space agency, to send Eirsat 1 on it's way in Jan or Feb of next year.

From humble beginnings.... great things come.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/1017/1329734-eirsat-1-irish-satellite/

Gloomtastic! · 17-10-2022 4:23pm

I read the RTE story and then saw this thread and thought what a beautifully-timed coup for Boards! I then see I've already contributed to the thread when it was first appeared in 2017.

New question if the OP is willing to revisit..........

How much paperwork is involved with a project like this or is it all documented online?

Now Ye're Talking - to the team for Ireland's first satellite, EIRSAT-1

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